Ein Priesterleben zwischen Rom und Kopenhagen. Der dänische „Camposantiner“ Peter Schindler und sein Engagement für die katholische Mission in Dänemark

Abstract (Swedish)

On New Year's Eve 1947, the Danish Catholic priest Peter Schindler moved into the German Priests’ College at the Campo Santo Teutonico, the idyllic German cemetery in the Vatican. He remained there for twenty years, returning to Denmark only in 1964. By then, he was in poor health and passed away three years later. In his memoirs, he states that he had been sent to Rome by the Apostolic Vicar of Denmark, Bishop Johannes Suhr, with the task of producing a Catholic translation of the New Testament into Danish. His memoirs, published in two volumes, were written during his time in Rome. The second volume, also published in Ger-man under the title Der Pflug Gottes (The Plough of God), ends with this information and describes him as “the happiest priest in the world.”

He may well have felt that way, but in reality, his stay in Rome had the character of an exile. As a Catholic priest in Denmark, he had made himself almost impossible to work with due to his numerous provocative statements and controversial activities. It was also not the first time he had been reassigned in such a manner. From 1931 to 1933, he had lived at Campo Santo while pursuing a licentiate at the Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology. That transfer, too, had followed conflicts within the Catholic community in Copenhagen. His li-centiate thesis, titled Le intuizione ecclesiastiche fra l’anno 33 a l’anno 100 (Ecclesiastical Intuitions Between the Year 33 and the Year 100), was rejected, and he returned to Denmark without completing the degree.
In the years that followed, he dedicated himself—alongside his work as a missionary priest—primarily to publishing. However, he never received a permanent parish assignment. The reason was a moral offense of a homosexual nature in late 1918, which had led to his temporary suspension from the priesthood and a period of penance in a Benedictine monastery out-side Rome. Instead, he worked as a writer, lecturer, and spiritual advisor. Around him gathered a community of Catholics, particularly converts, who had found their way to the Catho-lic Church through his influence. The 1958 anthology Vi blev Katolikker (We Became Catholics), in which 23 Danish converts recount their journey to the Catholic faith, is dedicated to Schindler “in gratitude for a groundbreaking achievement,” and some of the contributors had received their catechesis from him.

In both his memoirs and parts of his published work, Schindler devoted significant attention to the topic of Catholic conversion and the inculturation of the Catholic faith in Denmark and Northern Europe. This is also the subject of my study, in which I examine Schindler’s path to the Catholic Church, his work as a missionary priest in Denmark, and his efforts to shape a contemporary, Nordic form of Catholicism. I will also explore his time in Rome and his contributions as a writer and theologian. To place Schindler in a broader context, I begin with an overview of the Catholic revival in Northern Europe and the Catholic mission in the region.

• author: Werner, Yvonne Maria
• organization: History
• publishing date: 2025-04
• type: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
• publication status: in press
• host publication: Festpublikation anlässlich des 150-jährigen Bestehens des Priesterkollegiums am Campo Santo Teutonico in Rom (Arbetstitel)
• series title: Römische Quartalsschrift, Supplementband
• editor: Heid, Stephan
• language: German
• LU publication?: yes
• id: 81793578-4a78-4bb6-817c-986810a72013
• date added to LUP: 2025-04-15 22:47:36
• date last changed: 2025-07-11 11:27:58